What is Screen Printing

Screen printing is a stencil method of printing. A mesh is tightly stretched over a frame and coated with a UV light sensitive emulsion.

The artwork that you want to be exposed onto the screen is separated into layers. The layers are converted to black and printed onto a clear film.

The black areas on the film will block light reaching certain areas of the light sensitive emulsion.

The film positives of the design are laid onto an exposure unit. The exposure unit consists of a strong UV lamp and a sheet of glass. The coated screen is then placed on top of the film positive. The exposure unit is then turned on for a specific amount of time, depending on the sensitivity of the emulsion being used.

The UV light then reacts with the emulsion and any areas where the light can reach the emulsion will not be water soluble. The areas where the light was blocked from reaching the screen will be able to be washed out, thus creating areas of open and blocked mesh.

A squeegee is a rubber blade attached to a handle. The squeegee is used to push ink through the areas of open mesh on the screen according to the design that has been exposed thus creating your stencil to print multiple images.